Landing-gear for aircraft.



G. H. 'CURTISS. LANDING GEAR FOR AIRCRAFT.

APPLIQATLON FILED NOV. 22, 1913- 1223315 A Patnted Apr. 1 1917. 2 SHEETS-SHEET x.'

I MM

GLENN H. Curmss.

e. H. cumss. LANDING GEAR FOR AIRCRAFT. APPLICATlON'FILED NOV. 22, I913! Patented Apr. 17,1917.

2 sun's-5mm 2.

Slum/WE GLENN H. CURTISS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. GLENN HAMMOND cUn'rIss. or HIAMIV-IONDSPI'ORT, NEW YORK," AssiGNoa To'rHE ounrrssmomon company, or nAMrroNnsroan-NEw. max, A conronarron or new YORK.

To all whom it may concern.

.Be it known that I, GLENN H. CURTISS, a

- Specification of Letters Patent.

citizen of the United States, residing at- Hammondsport, in the county of Steuben '5 .and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements .in Landing-Gear for Aircraft, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to landing gear more particularly adapted for use in connection with that type of air craft. commonly known as the heavier than air type. As will'be seen however upon an understandingof my "winvention, this landing gear may .also be adapted for use in connection with air craft extremely rough ground without damage to of the lighter than air type. The principal.

object of the invention isthe production of a landing gear through the use of which landing maybemade upon plowed or otherthe machine or the occupant, and even with-' out discomfort to the latter.

, A landing gear in order toattain-this ob- .25

i strong construction, and" this very fact has ject must necessarily be of very sturdy and heretofore been a drawback, paradoxical as itmay seem, for the reason that when the structure is made of sufiicient strength and sturdiness to stand the severe strains imposed upon'it, the proper articulation and v I yielding connection of the various parts for the introduction "of equalizing connections between the various wheels becomes more .difiicult. By my invention. I attain this latter end without any sacrifice whatsoever to the strength and sturdiness of the structure.

According to my'invention I make use of three or more-heavy pneumatic tired wheels .or the equivalent, whereby a broad landing base is formed so to speak, and without the the. ordinary two-wheeled landing gear.

} The; greater the area covered by this base,

herein, I make use of four wheels, divided,

:45 the -more stable is the machine upon its wheels and the less liability there is of a into two, groups of two each,-one roup being disposed on each side of the. ce tral 1on5 gitudinal plane of the craft. The wheels of useoftrailing skids such as are common in digging in of one wing tip; In the pre- LANDING-GEAR ron AIRCRAFT.

. vidual movement of each wheelin a vertical plane. Braces connect the wheels of each groupand positively define their longitudi Hal positions as respects the main body of the craft and insure the continuance of their following relation. On each side of the central longitudinal vertical plane of the craft s an equallzing member connected with the main body of the craft on the one hand and by an articulated connection with: the wheels of the corresponding'group on the other, whereby the craftis normally -supported fromthe wheels through the equallzmg members and the articulated connecof each group are correlated and equalized. Shock absorbing means are provided-at advantageous polnts in the articulated. connections and between the equalizing members and the frame, whereby in addition to equipped with the landing gear of my invention, the craft being of the heavier than air type and the main supporting surfaces bemg broken away msections to permit anobstructed view of the elements of the landmg gear.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the 'front portion of the same showing a hydroplane .fioat attached to the wheels.

Patented Apr. 17, 1917.,

Application-filed November 22, 191 3. Seria1No.802,428.

4 Fig. 3 is aside view of the hydroplane float and the lower ends of the parts to which it is-attached.

Fig; 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing the attachment of a multiple number of hydroplane floats after the fashion of the catamaran-type of hydroolanes now in use.

75 tion aforesaid,'and movements of thewheels ing surfaces 10, and the fuselage 11 located between the upper and lower planes 10.

The fuselage 11 is of stream-line form and of rectangular cross section, and its frame work is formed of longitudinally extending main beams 12 bent upwardly at the front of the machine and projecting some distance in front of the main supporting surfaces 10.

- Connected with the front ends of the main 'are suitably beams 12 are the beams 13 of the engine base which may be suitably supported in any desired manner from the beams 12 at their rear ends, preferably by steel tubing as is common. Driving motor 1% and screw 15 mounted upon the base 13 and provided with a sheet metal hood 16 the rear end of which 17 is bent upwardly to form an air deflecting shield. The nacelle of the craft is located just back of the engine 14 behind the shield 17 and between the main supporting surfaces 10, whereby the operators are ma measure protected from the weather and whereby they may be readily protected from projectiles by simply armoring the lower supportlng surface 10 and the sides of the fuselage 11. There are provided in the nacelle two seats 18 for the operators, The usual Curtiss double shoulder fork control 19' is associated with the seats 18 while in front of the seats 18 is provided the shiftable Curtiss steering post 20 and wheel 21, all of which operate in a manner well understood. Suitable ailerons (or if desired wing surfaces) are operated from work. composed of converging struts 2& connected at their upper ends each to a beam 13 of the motor base and at their lower ends connected jointly to a longitudinally extending skid beam 25, and a pair of rearwardly placed diverging struts 26 connecting at their upper ends each with an upright 27 connected with a beam 12 of the fuselage 11, and at their lower ends connecting jiaintly with the rear end of the skid beam 25. The hinder struts 26 connect with the uprights 27 through the trailing beam 28 of the main supporting surfaces, the upper ends of the struts 26 and the lower ends of the uprights 27 being respectively mounted in suitably disposed sockets or otherwise connected with the beam 28. The structure so formed is braced to form a rigid frame work by diagonally run steel cables 29.

On eachside of this frame work and laterally spaced therefrom but having articulated connection therewith by means of' axles 3O hinged to the central skid beam;25

at 31, is a pair of following wheels By reason of the articulated connection 30-31, each wheel has free movement in a vertical plane, but between each pair of wheels 32-33 are provided longitudinally extending skid beams 3% connected with the axles 30 near the outer ends thereof and in fixed position substantially parallel to the central skid beam 25, whereby the longitudinal po'sitions'of the wheels 3233 as re spects eachother and as respects the body of the craft are fixed, although, articulated connections of any lnual and desirable char acter must obviously be provided to mount the wheels of each panupon their respective skid beams, in order to provide the play nec- "essary to prevent transverse twisting'of the beams 3i when wheels of the same pair are given different vertical movements. Additional bracing means having the same funo-- tion as the skid beams 34. are provided in the form of diagonally extending cables 35 which make of the structure 3034 a' frame which is substantially rigid in the horizontal plane. The free and individual vertical movement of the wheels 3233 is however not impaired. Mountedabove each .main beam 12 and pivotally and yieldingly con nected therewith by means of leather buffers 36 and flexible binding bands 37 is an equalizing bar 38. The opposite ends of each bar, which it will be observed are normally spaced apart from the main beams 12, are

connected to the mainbeams 12 by means of I by means of transversely extending bolt 41 (see Figs. 2 and 4) which bolt in addition to connecting the upright to the bar serves as means to connect a flexible band 39.

The operation of my invention is as follows: Assuming themachine to have been in flight and landing to be attempted upon plowed or other rough ground, the front wheels 32 of the pairs 3233 strike the ground first. Vertical movement of these wheels follows the impact and each wheel moves independently of the other, producing a correlated downward movement of the hindmost wheels 33 by reason of the rocking of the bars 38 over the buffers 36. The hindmost wheels therefore touch the earth a 'moment or two earlier than would be the case if they were connected immovably with the craft, and instead of there being a rebound as in case of rigid connection, the inertia of the descending tail of the craft is progressively .absorbed by the hindmost flexible bands 39, and the machine continues over the extremely rough ground with all four wheels in action until it, comes to a standstill, the impact and shock due to heavy irregularities being the while wholly equalized and absorbed by the mechanism, each individualv wheel moving v independe ntly of the others. This individual move ment however does not 1n any wlse lnterfere with movement in unison when such movementis enforced through the encountering of symmetrically disposed land formation. Obviously under such conditions either pair of wheels 3233 mayimove in unison, while the other pair does not, and so also the front Wheels 32 may move 1n unison while the hindmost-wheels'33 do not and vice versa. Infine,'there is no formation whatsoever of the kind ordinarily met with, to which this landing gear will 'not accommodate itself.

In starting, theoperatio n is entirely similar to that in landing, and in fact it has been found that the machine of my invenupon the ground without damage to the mation may be runfor long periods of time chine or discomfort to the operator. By virtue'ofthe employment of the articulated construction set forth, it has been possible beams 25 and 34then'rest commonly upon to'construct all parts of more than ample strength and sturdiness.

.In' Fig. 2 I have shown the wheels32-33 detached, andfa centrally disposedhydro plane float 42 attached. This attachment is.

made by simply attaching transverse beams 43 of the requisite length to the body of the float 42 at points spaced apart a distance equal to the distance between the axles 31, and connecting the outer ends of these beams 43 with the outer-ends of the axles 31- by meansof metallic brackets 44.. The skid the tops of the beams 43." When sd at-. tached, the fioat 42 may oscillate about the beam 25 as an axis, the connections 44 having su-iiicient lost motion to permit any desired degree of this regulating movement.

' There is obviously not the same necessity for equalizing the impacts oflanding' with the hydroplane float. v

In Fig. '4 however I have-shownan. arrangement in which there is longitudinal as well as'lateral equalization of the impacts of landing. In this construction -I employ two hydroplane floats'45," one connected to the axles 31 on one side of the central skid 25 and the otherconnected to the axles 31 on the opposite side, the connection being made by means ofstrips 46 which pivotally connect the floats 45 with the-axles 41. The" outboard skid members 34 are shown as removed,the floats 45 takingthe place of the same, but they may be included if desired. In this arrangement it is obvious that each end of each float 45 may move vertically Fig. 1.

independently of other portions, and the same advantages are attained as are found in connection with the wheeled chassis of I have shown and described the best em bodiments of my invention at present known to me but it is obvious that the invention may be given other embodimentsby those skilled inthe art without departing in any wise fromits'elemental and generic spirit. I desire to cover in the annexed ci'ai' .s all such embodlments.

I desire here to mention the fact that the v wheels may be removed if desired in case of any emergency, and landing made upon the skid beams 25-34, the front ends of said beams being upturned to admit of this. In

actual practice in case of extremely severe wheels of opposite pairs, a single member depending from said framework for the support of each wheel and articulated at its extremities to connect the framework with the appropriate axle in the I lations of the latter.

plane of the articu- 3.- A landing chassisffor aerial vehicles comprising a framework rigidly connected.

with the main body "of the craft, a plurality of following wheels in fixed longitudinal and transverse relation having articulated. connection with. said framework, and an equalizing connection between said following wheels on the one hand and the main body of said craft on the other, whereby the rise and fall of said wheels in the vertical plane is correlated and the efi'ectof such rise and fallen the main body of the craft minimized.

4. In combination an air craft, a rigidly connected frame work depending therefrom,

a plurality of following wheels having ar- 4 ticulated. connection with said framework for movement in the vertical plane with respect to the main body of said craft, but having interconnecting braces fixing their transverse and longitudinal positions, an equalizing member having a rocking connection with the main body of said craft, and a connecting member between each wheel and said equalizing member, said connecting member being pivotally joined both to thefwheel and to the equalizing member.

5. In combination an air craft, a depending frame work fixedly connected therewith, a plurality of following wheels .havmg articulated connection with said frame work v and laterally removed therefrom, braces spacing said wheels longitudinally apart, an

- equalizing memberhaving a yielding connection with the main body of said craft, and yielding connection between each of said wheels and-said equalizing member connecting with the wheelin each case at a point re moved from the point of its articulated connection aforesaid.

6. In combination an air craft, a rigidly connected framework depending therefrom, a pair of following wheelshaving articulated connection with said frame work permitting movement in the vertical plane, braces between said wheels positively defining their transverse and longitudinal position, said wheels being laterally spaced.

apart from their points of articulation with said frame, an equalizing bar above said wheels and having a pivoted central connection with themain body of said craft, and an upright member between each wheel and an end of said equalizing bar, said memher having pivotal connection with the wheel at a point removed from said depending frame work on'the one hand, and pivotal connection with the end of said equalizing i bar on the other.

In combinationan air craft, and a landing chassls therefor comprlsmg a depending frame work rigidly connected with the main body of the craft, a pair of following wheels removed laterally from said frame .work but having, articulated connection therewith permitting free movement in the vertical plane, braces between said wheels positively defining their transverse and longitudinal positions, an equalizing bar having a yielding connection with the main body of said air craft on the onehand and a pivotal connection with said wheels on the other.

8. In combination an air craft and a landing chassis therefor comprising a centrally disposed depending frame work rigidly con nected with the main body of the craft, laterally disposed pairs of following wheels one on each side of said frame work, and having articulated connection therewith, braces between the wheels of each pair positively defining their transverse and longitudinal positions, longitudinally extending equalizing bars connected with said'm ain body by a central pivotal connection and lying one on each side'of the'longitudinal axis thereof;

and an upright connection between each wheel and the adjacent end of that equalizing bar on the same side of the axis as the.

wheel. a

9. In combination an air craft, and a landingchassis therefor comprising a centrally located depending frame work rigidily connected to the main body of the craft, oppositely disposed pairs of following wheels laterally removed from said frame work but having articulated connection therewith, braces between the wheels of each pair positively defining their longitudinal positions with respect to the main body of the craft without limiting movement permitted by the articulated connection, a pair of long tudinally disposed equalizing bars centrally connected yieldingly with said main body one on each side of the longitudinal axis thereof, and uprights between said wheels and the ends of said equalizing bars, each uprlght having pivotal connection with one of theconnected elements at one end 'and'yielding connection with the other of said elements at the other end. p

10. In combination an air craft having a main body comprising a fuselage the frame of which is composed of longitudinallyextending main beams, a' longitudinally extending engine base substantially parallel with said main beams but spaced apart therefrom and connected thereto, a depending frame work rigidly connected at one end to said engine base and at the other end to said main beams, laterally disposed groups of following wheels one group on each side of said centrally disposed frame work and having articulated connection therewith, permitting individual vertical movement, braces between the wheels of each group defining their relative longitudinal ositions with respect to the main body of ,t e craft, equalizing members connected with the aforesaid'mainbeams of the fuselage, and an the outer end thereof, means extending longitudinally between said axle members on the under side thereof adjacent their lateral extremities and adapted to support the same in the absence of wheels, and a vertically yielding connection between each end of said longitudinally extending means and the main body of the craft whereby eachfe'nd of the same may move independently of the other end and oscillatiommay take place -with respect to the said depending frame work. p

12. In an aircraft, a landing chassis comprising a-longitudi'nally extending member adapted to support the craft in the absence of wheels, said member being in position beneath" the main body of the 'craft,'meansprovided with-a plurality of separate yieldable connection'sto the body of the craft and means connecting said chassis member pivotally. to the first said means at a plurality of points whereby said chassis-member ma be moved. freely at either end with respect to the longitudinal axis of the craft.

13, A landing chassis for aerial vehicles comprising a pair of longitudinally extending, laterally. disposed supporting members,

yieldable' connections between the opposite ends ofeach of said members'and themain body of the craft whereby each end of each member may move independently of the other end with respect to said aircraft body,

and yieldable connections extending directly between the said supporting members whereby the latter may move independently of each other with respect to the craft, together With means positively defining the longit-udi nal positions of said members with respect 3 to the longitudinal axis of the craft.

14. In an aircraft, main supporting sur- 'faces, flight control means, a la'n'ding chassis. arranged beneath the body ofsaid aircraft,

shockabsorbing members extending. from said chassis to a yieldable connection with the aircraft body, and arranged to project through openings in opposite supporting.

surfaces, and operators seats arranged adjacent'to said control means and 0. the openings in saidsurfaces, whereby the latter may be utilized to enlarge-the outlook of the occupants of said seats.

15. In combination an air craft, and a '"landing. chassisfor the same, comprising a pair of following wheels, an equalizinginember between said wheels and a yielding connectionbetween said equalizing member and'the main body of the craft. 3

1.6. In combination an air craft, and a chassis therefor comprising a pair of follow: ingwheels, and an equalizing member between said wheels and having a pivotal connection'with each, and a pivotal connection with the main body of the craft.

17. In combination an fair craft, and a landing chassis therefon comprising a pair of following wheels, together with an equalizing member between said wheels and haw mg a pivotal connection with thewheels onthe one hand and a yielding connection with the main body of the craft on the other.

18 In combination an aircraft, and a landing chassis comprising a ground run 7 ning member and a longitudinally elongated shock absorbing member intermediate the ground running member and the "main body of said craft, having multiple yielding connections with said main body and balanced for oscillation about a central connection.

19. In combination, an aircraft, a landing chassis therefor comprising two laterally disposed pairs of wheels and articulated longitudinal connections between the wheels of each pair by way of intermediate attachment to the aircraft, and additional articulated connections extending transversely between the corresponding wheels of the 'pairs.

20. In combination, an aircraft and a landing chassis-comprising a .pair of ground running members mounted for independent 7 vertical movement with respect to each other and means separately connecting to each a member but commonly suspended by the, aircraft to yieldably resist the said independyieldable and pivotal suspension from the aircraft to afford variably independent movement between the members of each pair. I

22. In a landing gear for aircraft, wheels projected from the body of the craft by struts, articulated connections between the respective wheels, and shock absorbing devices common to the wheels at opposite sides of the fore and aft axis of the craft. 7

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

\ GLENN HAMMOND CURTISS.

Witnesses: v

H. C. GENUNG, J. D. MCCURDY. 

